abhinava dESika- SrI UttamUr Swamy Divya Charitham- 17
From the Bhakti List Archives
• January 22, 2002
SrI: Sri Padmavathi Sametha Srinivasa Parabrahmane Namaha. Sri Perundhevi Sametha Devadhiraja Parabrahmane Namaha. SrimathE Bhagavad Ramanujaya Namaha: SrimathE Nigamantha Mahadesikaya namaha: Srimate Rangaramanuja Maha Desikaya Namaha. Srimate Abhinava Desika Vatsya Satchakravarti Uttamur SRI VIRARAGHAVARYA MAHA DESIKAYA NAMAHA SrImAn venkatanAthAryaH kavitArkika kesarI | vedAntAcArya-varyome sannidhattAm sadA hRdi || Thanian (Invocatory verse on Sri UttamUr swamy written by Swamy's AchAryan Sri Kozhiyalam Swamy himself) adbhutam yasya vikrAntam vEda vIthI ViSOdhanE | aparam nigamAntAryam prapadyE vIrarAghavam || [Article in Tamil by SrI PayyampADi VEnkatavaradAchArya SwAmi; English write up (based on Tamil) by SrI R.VenkatAchAri (SohattUr- Vankipuram -Oppiliappan Sannidhi), a disciple of SrI UtthamUr SwAmi. Appeared in the souvenir released during the SatAbhishEkam (80th birth anniversary) of SrI UtthamUr swAmi on 10th Feb, 1977] In the last post, there was a left out portion:-(. Apologize for the mistake. > The Lady doctor refused to treat the patient as the injuries were all >very serious and the rule requires only a male (*) patients, except in an >emergency. (*) left out : ......the rule requires only a male <> patients .... Let us continue with the divya charitham of Sri UttamUr Swamy. TIRUPPAVAI UPANYASAM: The previous year, before coming to Madras, Our Swami was invited to Tiruvallore for Tiruppavai Upanyasam. It served a double purpose. He could earn some money and more than, he could worship Lord Viraraghava Perumal for one by whose grace only, his parents got him as son. It was a good omen that he started his Upanyasam series with the blessings of Lord Viraraghava Perumal. The Tiruppavai commentary written by Our Swami is considered the best of all the commentaries written by others so far. Sri.U.Ve.Tirukallam Swami used to say that by reading one page of the commentary of Our Swami, he can do Tiruppavai Upanyasam for more than a month. You must hear him praise Our Swami’s genius, for example the interpretation, Our Swami had given, for the word `UYYUMAARU’, in the Pasuram “Vaiyatu Vazhveeral”. After reaching Tiruvellore for a month’s stay and on hearing that Sri Injimedu Alagiasingar Swami was camping there, he proceeded to the Mutt to pay his regards and worship Lord Lakshmi Nrisimha, and get their blessing before starting the Upanyasam. Sri Alagiasingar Swami was very much pleased and arranged to send all the provisions etc. from the Mutt, for one month, for the use of Our Swami. He even asked all the pundits connected with the Mutt, to attend the Upanyasam and instructed them not to miss the great opportunity given to them to hear a great genius. The local Astikas and the Vidvans of the Mutt came in good number, which included the present Alagiasingar, the 44th Jeer of the Ahobila Mutt, in his Poorvasramam, as he was staying in the Mutt itself. On the second day of the Upanyasam, the Present Jeer stood up and requested Our Swami to include Swaapadesam also in his daily lectures. The next day Our Swami did not attempt Swapadesam; but the 44th Jeer stood up again and remarked that, no doubt, the Upanyasam contained lots of novel interpretations, of course, acceptable to all in our Sampradaya, but definitely needs the Swapadesam also as it is customary by all Upanyasakas to do that. Our Swami told the assembled audience that the Sampradaya Swaapadesam, given by all the Pandits, did not appeal to his mind as it did not contain a continuity of thought for the entire Tiruppavai, but only in disjointed bits, differing in thought, from Pasuram to Pasuram. But the 44th Jeer , insisted that Our Swami could give a thought about that so far and after reaching home, prayed to his Acharyas and Sri Andal to bless him with some new ideas. After some thought, suddenly, one idea struck him which was quite appealing. He developed the same and formed in his mind a good Swaapadesam, which can be a continuous one for the entire Tiruppavai. The same was included in his Upanyasam from the Fifth day onwards. The Swaapadesam was that the 30 pasurams, describe the Pancha Kala Prakriya (in the correct order) of a Sri Vaishnava. (More details can be had from the book on Tiruppavai written by Our Swami). The entire audience including the 44th Jeer accepted the Swaapadesam as a superb one and praised Our Swami. Every day, the Vidwans from the Mutt, used to come to Our Swami and tell him that though they were, in the beginning more or less forced to attend the Upanyasam, they later felt that they were benefited immensely and would have lost a good opportunity to learn many few things if they had not attended the lectures. At the end of the 30 day series, the present 44th Jeer spoke for half an hour about the wonderful experience they were having for the past 30 days, by hearing Our Swami’s Upanyasam. On hearing this happy conclusion of the Upanyasam, Sri Injimettu Alagiasingar also praised Our Swami. During the stay at Tiruvallore Our Swami one day heard some people remark, that, in spite of the presence of Sri Alagiasingar, the town did not get the usual monsoon and the crops had failed. It so happened that that day happened to be the day for the Pasuram “Ongi Ulagalanda” Our Swami in the middle of his Upanyasam referred to the remarks about the failure of monsoon, he heard earlier in the day, and said that it was not sufficient if a great man was present in the village but only when the villagers worshipped him and look after him well, God would be pleased and bring monsoon, rain and prosperity to the village and told them to throng in good number and worship the Alagiasingar and Lord Lakshmi Nrisimha. (Our Swamy, heard, that, after he left, there was good rain and the Alagiasingar also praised Our Swami for his AARJAVAM and the CHAMATKARAM. TIRUPPAVAI AT MADRAS: The next year (1953), after retirement Our Swami accepted the invitation from Madras throughout Pulavanur Sri U.Ve.Parthasarathy Iyengar Swami and proceeded to Madras for a stay of one month only. On the opening day of the Upanyasam series at George Town, he was received, on arrival at the pandal, by Sri.U.Ve.(Sir) S.Varadacharya Swami (Judge), Sri Desika Darsana Ratna Deepam, Sri.U.Ve.V.V.Srinivasa Iyengar Swami, Sri.U.Ve.V.T.Rangaswami Iyengar Swami and many other leading Vaishnavites of Madras. Inaugurating the Tiruppavai Upanyasam Series, Sir S.Varadacharya Swami said that Even though they had been inviting Our Swami to settle in Madras permanently he did not so far agree; but that year he had come for a short stay of one month for the Tiruppavai Upanyasam. He also said that they had not abandoned the hope of persuading Our Swami to change his mind for a permanent stay in Madras. Then Sri V.V.S.Swami remarked that it was known to everybody that they had formed a committee to collect finance for Our Swami’s publications. He requested Our Swami to make up his mind, this time, to stay in Madras permanently. By doing so, Sri.V.V.Swami argued, Our Swami would be doing a great service to Sri vaishnava Sampradaya, as there were many, who were eager to do Kalakshepam under Our Swami and to enrich their knowledge in Vedanta Shastra and increase their Gnana Bhakti and Sraddha in our Sampradaya. Madras, he said, was not so bad as Our Swami thought and certainly not a city to be avoided. It is also a Divya Kshetra and there were no qualified Acharyas in Madras. He asked Our Swami to take pity on the Astikas in Madras city and change his earlier decision. Then he requested Sri.V.T.R.Swami to make all the arrangements for a comfortable stay in Madras in case Our Swami decided to come to Madras. He also said, in a joking manner, that they were trying to bring a high class Gajendra for Tirupathi and as himself and Sir S.V.Swami were very old, it was the duty of Sri V.T.R.Swami, being a local elephant, to look after him well. Sri V.T.R.Swami also agreed to do so, as per the directions of the elders present. The Upanyasam series was then inaugurated and at the end of the first day’s Upanyasam, people from Mambalam and Tiruvallikeni, who came there to hear the Upanyasam, praised Our Swami. Then they requested Our Swami to undertake Upanyasams in Mambalam and Tiruvallikeni also, as otherwise, the residents of those localities would be denied of the great fortune to hear Swami’s Upanyasam which the George Town people were having. Though this would involve a hectic programme of rushing from one place to the other after the Upanyasam, Our Swami could not disappoint the eager Astikas. Finally it was arranged that George Town would have Upanyasam in the mornings; while Mambalam would have it between 6-00 and 9-00 p.m. and Triplicane would have it after 9.00 p.m. The response from all those places were very overwhelming. Some of the more ardent Astikas, who used to attend all the three Upanyasams, remarked with great admiration about Our Swami’s capacity to give different meanings at all the three centers for the same Pasuram. Among the regular visitors, was the Present Srimad Thirukkudanthai Andavan Of Srirangam Periasramam, in his Poorvasramam (a very popular Upanyasaka himself and a good Rasika of Prabandas) known as Sri Kannan Swami. At the end of the Series, he stood up spoke in his own style, and explained to the audience some of the special interpretations which Our Swami had given to them and praised Our Swami’s Vidwat. He also said that Upanyasakas, like him, did Upanyasam for the sake of earning a livelihood while the Upanyasam of Our Swami was for the emancipation of the Jeevatma to help him attain the Eternal Bliss, the Moksha. Hereafter, Upanyasaka like him who attended the Upanyasams would have enough matter (heard from Our Swami) which would be sufficient for Upanyasams for months together. Immediately after Tiruppavai Satumurai, some Astikas stood up and made repeated requests to Our Swami to stay permanently in Madras. They said that for one month they had been hearing wonderful Upanyasa with new interpretations to Tiruppavai hitherto not known to any pandit and such of those who would have the good fortune to do Vedanta Kalakshepa under him would be the luckiest. Sri Poondi Achyuta Gopalachar Swami, a sishya of Sri Koliyalam Swami to live with his family without detriment to his Achara. He estimated that there would be at least 25 sishyas who would come forward for the Kalakshepa. Sri K.Bhashyam Iyengar Swami (Ex-Minister) who was attending the Tiruppavai Upanyasas very regularly, came to Our Swami and expressed his desire to talk to Our Swami leisurely and that he would come to Our Swami’s residence at Madras. Our Swami’s Revered Acharya had been getting regular reports of the Tiruppavai Upanyasa and also about the request of the Astikas for Our Swami’s stay in Madras for the sake of conducting a Kalakshepa Goshti. He also heard that Our Swami had been hesitating to make a decision and the reasons for the same. The Revered Acharya sent word to Our Swami, not to hesitate accepting the offer and asked him to shift his residence to Madras at once. He argued, that though a Prapanna is prohibited from asking for any worldly pleasures from Sriman Narayana, he is permitted to request HIM to grant Bhakti, Gnana and Sraddha. When such a request is made to an Acharya, he should not refuse to grant the same without valid reasons. There could not be a better way of serving God than to help an Astika to increase his Bhakti and Gnana. He said that it was the accepted habit among the Acharyas, with Sishyas waiting for Grantha Kalakshepa, to reduce that time allotted normally for even Nityakarmanushtana, to the barest minimum. He opined that if a suitable place could be secured for him it would be quite possible for a grihasta to stay in Madras without much sacrificing his Anushtana. The command of his Revered Acharya could not be disobeyed and so Our Swami decided to settle in Madras for the time being. He moved into the portion allotted by Sri Achyuta Gopalachar Swami in the Makara masa itself and started the Kalakshepa of Srimad Rahasyatrayasara. On the first day a good number of Sishyas were present. How did the kalakshepam go? Let us wait for the next post:-( AchAryan ThiruvadigaLE SaraNam Regards Namo Narayana aDiyEn dAsan _________________________________________________________________ Join the world’s largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. http://www.hotmail.com -------------------------------------------------------------- - SrImate rAmAnujAya namaH - To Post a message, send it to: bhakti-list@yahoogroups.com Archives: http://ramanuja.org/sv/bhakti/archives/ Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
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